Lake Huron Update
Office of the Great Lakes
Michigan Department of Environmental Quality
P.O. Box 30473
Lansing, MI 48909
2000/2001
Did you know...?
Lake Huron was once known as the “Lake of
the shaggy-haired tribe” after the first French
explorers’ impression of the area’s native
residents.
Manitoulin, an island separating the North
Channel from Georgian Bay and Lake Huron
proper, is the largest freshwater island in the
world.
Lake Huron was the first of the Laurentian Great
Lakes to be discovered.
Lake Huron is the second largest Laurentian
Great Lake in surface area and third largest in
volume. It is the third largest freshwater lake
in surface area and also sixth largest in
volume in the world.
Michigan Travel Bureau
Tom Gagon
The Lake Huron basin ranks second lowest of all
the Great Lakes in number of human inhabitants.
Saginaw Bay contains 37 % of the Lake Huron
inhabitants.
Pollutant loadings to Lake Huron from water
sources are the lowest of all the Great Lakes, while
air sources are the highest.
This project was funded, in part, by a grant from the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency’s Great Lakes National Program Office.
Prepared by the Office of the Great Lakes
Michigan Department of Environmental Quality
John Engler, Governor; Russell J. Harding, Director
www.deq.state.mi.us/ogl/
Lake Huron Update
Lake Huron Initiative
www.deq.state.mi.us/ogl/huron.html
The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) will not discriminate against
any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, religion, age, national origin, color,
marital status, disability or political beliefs. Questions or concerns should be directed to
the MDEQ Office of Personnel Services, P.O. Box 30473, Lansing, MI 48909.
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Michigan Department of Environmental Quality
Lake Huron Update
been undertaken, yet Lake Huron fish
and wildlife continue to be exposed to a
multiplicity of physical, chemical, and
biological stresses. In terms of
importance, major stresses that affect
the biodiversity of Lake Huron fish and
wildlife communities are:
•
•
Michigan Travel Bureau
1 The Lake in
the Middle
Lake Huron has been called “the
lake in the middle” both geographically
and in environmental quality. Lake
Huron receives water from two of
the Great Lakes, Lake Superior
and Lake Michigan; it sends water
to Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.
Lake Huron has relatively good
water quality. It has lost significant
areas of high value coastal wetlands,
yet the fishery is relatively healthy.
This Great Lake supplies drinking
water to 1.5 million people. In
addition, Lake Huron’s connecting
channels, the St. Marys and St.
Clair Rivers, provide drinking water
for another four million people.
2 Habitat is
Critical
In many of the other Great
Lakes, chemical contaminants are a
major concern. For Lake Huron,
habitat is a primary concern. Even
though pollutants (principally
through fish consumption advisories)
are a problem in Lake Huron, there
are few sources of persistent toxic
contaminants within the Lake Huron
basin. Future efforts need to be
directed toward controlling
out-of-basin sources of atmospheric
deposition and restoring and protecting
habitat within the Lake Huron basin.
These efforts are important for all of
the Great Lakes as well.
Lake Huron has been impacted
by human activity to a point that the
loss of fish and wildlife habitat is now
a serious concern. One of the keys to
restoring the lake is the protection of
existing critical habitat and the
restoration of degraded habitat
including those within the lake itself
and its tributaries and wetlands.
The ecological well-being of Lake
Huron is determined to a great extent
by the condition of its tributaries. The
tributary streams provide critical habitat
for spawning and young fish. Many of
the lake’s tributaries have been
severely degraded because of dams,
sedimentation, nonpoint source
pollution and land-use practices.
3 Ecosystem
Objectives
Local Lake Huron restoration
efforts need to focus on Lake Huron
fisheries, wildlife and biodiversity within
the watershed. Significant research
efforts toward restoration have
degradation and loss of historical
habitat in tributaries (principally
impassable dams) and nearshore
habitat, including coastal wetlands;
eutrophication (excess nutrients)
in localized areas;
•
effects of harmful exotic species;
•
effects of over-fishing; and
•
impact of persistent toxic
contaminants.
Lake Huron Drainage Basin
Ontario
Lake Huron
Michigan
Legend
Watershed unavailable to Great
Lakes fish due to dams
Historical lake trout spawning areas
4 Critical Areas
Specific areas within the Lake
Huron basin that are significantly
degraded are considered Areas of
Concern. Two Canadian sites,
Spanish River and Severn Sound,
are responding well to remedial
actions and showing recovery. One
additional site, Collingwood Harbour,
Ontario, was the first, and remains the
only, Area of Concern to be restored.
The only site solely in Michigan,
Saginaw River/Saginaw Bay, is
designated as an Area of Concern
primarily because of fish consumption
advisories, contaminated sediments
and nonpoint pollution sources.
Pollutants of concern include nutrients
(principally phosphorus) and pathogens.
Of equal importance are the areas
of high quality habitat in the lake.
These include areas such as Saginaw
Bay, St. Marys River, Misery Bay,
Eastern Georgian Bay, Manitoulin
Island and the Bruce Peninsula.
One of the most common exotics
found in Saginaw Bay is Eurasian
watermilfoil. This plant forms thick mats
on surface waters and can interfere
with many types of recreational
activities.
The sea lamprey is another exotic
species present in Lake Huron.
Lamprey populations are at their
highest near the northern point of Lake
Huron in the St. Marys River. This river
has been providing suitable habitat
5 Harmful Exotics
Historically, there was a diverse
population of fish species native to
Lake Huron. Now, there are over
145 nonindigenous species, both
aquatic and terrestrial, within the
Great Lakes basin, many of which are
found in the Lake Huron basin.
Nonindigenous species, also
referred to as non-native, exotic and
alien species, threaten the diversity
and abundance of native species and
the ecological stability of Lake Huron.
Also impacted are commercial,
agricultural and recreational activities.
Since the 1800s, exotics such as
zebra mussels, ruffe, and gobies are
believed to have been introduced into
the Great Lakes from ballast water
discharged from ocean vessels.
Not only do invasive species
compete with native species for food
and habitat, they may also increase
the cycling of persistent bioaccumulative
chemicals in the food chain.
Michigan Travel Bureau
Great Lakes Fishery Commission
for lamprey spawning. Preliminary
assessments show significant reductions
in sea lamprey larvae in the St. Marys
River since extensive international
efforts began in July of 1998. These
efforts sought to eliminate 92 percent
of the sea lamprey produced in the
river, thereby achieving the goal of
reducing the populations in Lake
Huron and northern Lake Michigan
by 85 percent over the next 15 years.
6 What is the LHI?
The Lake Huron Initiative (LHI)
was established by representatives
from the Michigan Office of the Great
Lakes, state, provincial, federal and
local agencies and interest groups with
a common goal “to restore and
maintain the chemical, physical, and
biological integrity of the waters,
tributaries, and nearshore terrestrial
and aquatic ecosystems of Lake
Huron.” The focus for the LHI is to
work with all levels of government and
private interests toward restoration and
continued protection. Also, the LHI is
working with similar interests toward
restoring the chemical environment of
the lake through targeted pollution
prevention efforts and on-going
sediment remediation efforts in the
Saginaw and Pine Rivers.
With combined efforts, the Lake
Huron Initiative Action Plan has
been produced to identify priority
issues and coordinate future efforts
to ensure a sustainable Lake Huron.
7 What is the
LHI Action Plan?
The Lake Huron Initiative Action
Plan identifies trends regarding specific
critical pollutants, use impairments and
ecosystem objectives, and actions that
can be taken to address the impairments
within Lake Huron. The plan is not as
extensive as a lakewide management
plan, such as those being prepared
for the other Great Lakes. However,
the plan is an effort to address issues
of common concern within the Lake
Huron basin. The LHI has identified
important future efforts focusing on
two key issues:
•
•
Fish and wildlife habitat and
biodiversity and
Critical pollutants/use impairments
Since the creation of the LHI Action
Plan, the following actions have been
undertaken:
•
•
Development of a bi-national system
to identify, map and quantify highquality natural communities and
important habitats (funded-ongoing)
Initiate efforts to remediate impact
of dams (ongoing)
•
Sediment cleanups in Saginaw and
Pine Rivers (funded-ongoing)
•
Secure funding for the $177 million
buffer strip program for the Saginaw
Bay watershed (funded-ongoing)
Special
Features
Georgian Bay
Georgian Bay is large enough to
be among the world’s 20 largest
lakes by volume. Early explorers
listed Georgian Bay as a separate
sixth lake because it is nearly
separated from the rest of Lake
Huron by Manitoulin Island and
the Bruce Peninsula. High-quality
lake trout habitats are still present
in Georgian Bay and near
Drummond Island.
Georgian Bay Association
North Channel
Sheltered by Manitoulin and
Drummond Islands, the North
Channel is the home of hundreds of
islands and an unspoiled, freshwater boaters paradise. This
channel is connected on the
west end by the St. Marys
River and on the east end by the
Georgian Bay.
Check out our Lake Huron
Initiative website at
www.deq.state.mi.us/ogl/
huron.html
James W. Herbert
Jim Bredin
Office of the Great Lakes
P.O. Box 30473
Lansing, MI 48909
517-335-4232
email: [email protected]
Saginaw Bay
This eutrophic bay is made up
of a shallow inner bay with an
average depth of 15 ft. and an
outer bay with an average depth
of 48 ft. The Bay has many
sub-bays, which are believed to
be prime nursery grounds for
fish. Historically, Saginaw Bay
supported the second largest
walleye fishery in the Great
Lakes, second only to that of
Lake Erie.
Kayak cover photo: Kate Ter Haar
Canoe cover photo: Carol Swinehart
Watershed map: Geomatics Unit, Environment Canada
To obtain a copy of the Action
Plan, or for other information
contact:
Ducks Unlimited
James Schardt
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Great Lakes National Program Office
77 W. Jackson Blvd., G-17J
Chicago, IL 60604
312-353-5085
email: [email protected]
Janette Anderson
Environment Canada
867 Lakeshore Drive
Burlington, Ontario L7R 4A6
email: [email protected]